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I enjoy smoothies, but in the cold winter months I typically don’t eat them. However, with the warmth of summer returning I have added them back into my diet.

Ingredients:

1 cup soymilk

1 cup spinach

1 cup strawberries (fresh or frozen)

1 cup mango (fresh or frozen)

2 tbsp. coconut butter

Throw all the ingredients in the blender and you’ll have a delicious tropical tasting smoothie. It may look green, but it doesn’t taste green.

Currently my basic rule of thumb with smoothies is:

1 cup some type of milk (almond, soy, hemp, rice…)

1 cup spinach (you can even throw in romaine, kale, any leafy green)

1 cup tart fruit (any berry because they are lower in sugar)

1 cup sweet fruit (it’s better to use fruit to sweeten your smoothie rather than added sugar because at least you’ll be getting some nutrients, you can use mango, pineapple, dates, or banana)

2 tbsp healthy fats (coconut butter is sweet tasting, you can also use almond, peanut, or cashew butter, you can also throw in hemp seeds, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, but they tend to give a bitter taste, either way you’ll be giving your body some healthy fats)

Dwight and I have a little bit of a Saturday night dinner tradition. This week we kept it pretty simple and very healthy. Vegetables and beans are the best way to get your nutrients on a vegan or vegetarian diet. They are low in fat and high in protein, minerals and vitamins.

Ingredients:

3 cups of water

1 head of kale chopped (not 1 leaf, this should be about 4 or 5 packed cups)

2 cans of navy beans

1 large celery stalk chopped

1 carrot chopped

4 cloves garlic

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 can tomato paste

2 tsp. rosemary

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. thyme

Throw the ingredients in a crockpot, stir, let it cook for at least an hour. Then you’ll have yourself a healthy stew!

I’m sure we all get into a rut with our meals. I eat salad pretty much every day, so it’s easy to stick to what you are used to. Here is a quick recipe for Portobello mushrooms that you can throw in your salad.

Ingredients:

6 oz Portobello mushrooms (usually 1 package)

2 tbsp. dried rosemary

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup of water

Throw all the ingredients together in a shallow pan so the mushrooms can marinate. After an hour or so you can throw them in the oven for 10 minutes and they’re ready to eat!

I usually prepare this in the morning and bake it when I come home. You don’t have to worry about over marinating them. This is really tasty and really easy!

Maybe this smoothie is a little out of place mid-winter? But maybe it’ll perk you up when a lot of snow is falling on the ground.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut butter

2 cups coconut water

1 cup pineapple slices

1 cup frozen mango

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 tsp goji berry powder

1 tsp camu camu powder

Throw the ingredients in a blender and enjoy!

All these ingredients can be found at Wegmans. If you’re not near a Wegmans then Whole Foods. When I was going through a phase where I ate mostly raw food I neglected frozen fruit. But now I find that it is really convenient. You avoid possibility of mold and bacteria as well as cut down on waste. In the summer it is a lot easier to enjoy fresh fruit, but in the winter months I’m sticking to frozen fruit.

The goji berry powder is a good source of protein, vitamins and minerals. It has 18 amino acids, loaded with vitamin A. The camu camu provides a substantial amount of vitamin C, which is great for fighting winter colds. Drink up!!!

I’ve been student teaching and teaching a course at SU, so I haven’t been able to post much. But, I just made this dressing last night.

Ingredients:

juice of 1 orange

2 tbs of tahini

1 tbs miso

1 tbs flax oil

1 tsp ginger root powder

Mix ingredients in a bowl and you’re done! I typically use flax oil in my salad dressings. This really should be the only oil used on a regular basis because it contains EFA (essential fatty acids). More specifically flax oil contains Omega 3 fatty acids which are hard to find in the standard american diet. We are bombarded with Omega 6’s which compete with the Omega 3’s for room in our cells. Omega 3 fatty acids are known for their ant-inflammatory properties, whereas Omega 6 has inflammatory properties. This is why it is important to have an ideal ratio of the two.

Many people use olive oil in their salad dressing, but this and the use of all other oils should be limited. If you are not an active individual, then even the monounsaturated fat is being stored along the waistline. In fact to be more specific, 97% of the monounsaturated or saturated fat that you eat is being stored along the waistline.

I have started my student teaching this semester and have found myself really busy. I have been having a little difficulty with my diet because I no longer have as much time to devote to preparing my food. This Sunday I decided to make some dressing for the week and hope to make a new dressing each week.

Here is this weeks:

1 tbs. raw honey

2 tbs. lemon juice

2 tbs. tahini

1 tbs. flax oil

1/2 tsp. ginger powder

1/4 tsp. sea salt

2 tbs. water

Combine ingredients in a bowl and stir. I doubled the ingredients so that I’d have enough for the week. I keep the dressing in a mason jar to preserve it’s freshness.